TMZ is claiming that Leno has signed a deal to host an hour-long Tonight Show for the next year. Daily Beast is claiming that a settlement has been negotiated on O'Brien's NBC contract and that he'll receive a huge check and the right to go elsewhere. Even if these stories aren't true at the moment, they probably will be.
Apparently, Conan's pretty mad at NBC about how this has all turned out…and NBC is pretty mad at him. This afternoon at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Dick Ebersol went out to deliver the NBC spin, which is that Conan just plain failed and was stubbornly refusing to fix what he [Ebersol] thought was wrong with the show.
For what it's worth, I think the ratings O'Brien was getting were lower than can be explained by weak lead-ins, lack of support, just getting his bearings, etc. There was something fundamental about his Tonight Show that wasn't connecting with viewers…but I still think he should have been given more time. Conan's a talented guy with a sharp support team and it's far from inconceivable that he could have turned things around. (One question that may or may not be answered: Jeff Zucker's getting about 98% of the heat for this decision. Did he really make it or was it a demand from affiliates who looked at the mess NBC had at 10 PM, looked at how much of Leno's audience Conan had lost, and said, "Fix this now…or else!"?)
Anyway, we seem to be down to the point where Leno, O'Brien, Letterman and Kimmel are all hurling cheapshots, some enormously childish but funny. Is it just me or is there something odd about Conan and Dave accusing Jay of shoving aside the guy hosting The Tonight Show to get his job? Seems to me both of those guys have at least attempted that at one time or another.